"I was all psyched to surf yesterday. I thought we were going to run for sure. I guess they said it was too big or something."
The wildly photogenic Hawaiian surfer Barron Mamiya has carpeted a post-heat interview at the Lexus Pipe Pro with what might accurately be called truth bombs.
Mamiya, twenty four and a Pipeline standout, was anything but impressed with the WSL’s decision to not run the Lexus Pipe Pro on the most spectacular day of the waiting period.
He wasn’t alone, as we know.
A very small slice of the responses on the WSL’s Instagram page yesterday.
Seriously is the WSL trying to lose all fans? I’ve never been more embarrassed about a sport I love.”
“Just seen Italo get spat out of a monster barrel!! Who actually made the decision to call it off??”
“Need another professional surf league to compete against the WSL! Too soft and a men’s karen champion from last season!”
“Completely unfair to the guys that charge on days like today. Simple fact.”
The WSL was rewarded for its patience with the world’s best surfers at the Lexus Pipe Pro enjoying a dying and inconsistent four-foot swell.
After winning his round of 32 heat and condemning Portugal’s Fred Morais to his seventh consecutive loss at Pipeline today, Barron Mamiya was unsparing in his criticism of the decision not to run.
“Yeah, woke up this morning, and uh it looked really bad, not gonna lie, so yeah I knew it was going to be wave catching contest,” said an impressed Mamiya. “I was all psyched to surf yesterday. I thought we were going to run for sure. When I rolled up yesterday it was firing and I was like… ohhh… and I guess (lightly sarcastically) they said it was too big or something.”
As for today, “There’s a couple of little ones out there. It’s not great,” said Mamiya.
Let’s imagine, for a moment, the decision to run or not the Lexus Pipe Pro is on you.
Ten, twelve foot, most of ’em closing out but here and there, every thirty minutes or whatever, waves that’ll be replayed for years. Zeroes or tens.
Do you run?
Or do you hold for the sake of fairness, equal-ish playing field etc?
And where are the gals?
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A “highly photogenic” surfer named Mamiya?
That might be a canonical pun, worthy of ascending the Olympus of wordplay.
Barron just got himself underscored for the rest of the season.
If the WSL fines Barron for his opinion, I’d imagine Kelly and Gabriel will happily cover it.
The eternal closeout of positive noise from the Waist-High Surf League continues to catch us all inside in the impact zone of PC/woke mediocrity.
pipeline is to dangerous.
The question is not whether that day (when they didn’t run) was optimum conditions – the question is whether it looked better than what was coming up later in the waiting period. I don’t doubt that, if they ran, there would’ve been a couple heats with very low totals because it was hard to be in position for the rideable waves that came through. If the forecast for the rest of the waiting period was clean 4-10 ft pipe then sure, call the day off. But to call the day off in favour of borderline uncontestable slop like today is just breathtakingly dumb.
I get that the surfers get a say in whether or not it should run, and it may well be that a majority of them didn’t want to go out, but it’s a weak contest director who listens to the surfers when they’ve got a forecast ahead of them like this one. It’s also allowing the guys (and the less ballsy ones in particular) to poop all over the girls, because what we know about the WSL is that when they have a crap forecast they’ve give the marginally OK waves to the guys and send the girls out in the slop.
Good on Barron for speaking up. Would be cool if JJF, KS and others spoke up too.
Surfing went from “Eddie would go” to “what are your pronouns and what do you identify as”?
The WSL went woke, it’s broke. Somebody please start a new league!
You dummies act like athletes didn’t have a say. None of the athlete managers wanted to run, thus the decision was made. Every crying on here wouldn’t even wade out on their boogie board
Pure soap opera, you wanted pro surfing…. you got!
The question is — if Pip stayed in, whether ultimately eliminated or not, would the WSL have made a different choice to run on big monday? Feels like their #1 implying the waves were too dangerous on a smaller day would influence their decision the following day when macking.
Seriously?
I’ll say this – I did not watch one second of Pipe yesterday. They get paid to surf, so surf.
Equal Pay for Equal Carnage! Chicks don’t wanna Surf Pipe. They just want Man Money. Same as they wanna be Navy Seals till the Blood and Bullets start Flying. Can I Sleep with you tonight I’m Scared!!! Nightmare on Kenui Rd….
WTF is this? Were they so busy teaching you limp stereotypes about chicks at school that they forgot to cover capitalisation?
I was there last Wednesday, great experience, such a lovely area. Im not a surfer but you have to admire their skill.
Gabby exiting a Pipe event with a total of 2.73 tells you everything you need to know about the conditions today.
The World Little League.
Was that a ‘dirty sanchez’ claim from Mamiya after that double cover up against Morais? Or some gangsta north shore hand signal I am ignorant of? Commentators weren’t touching it…
Glad someone picked up on that.. the commentators were cxxt struck!
It was a disappointing day. Guys in the water we’re catching gems all morning. Mass gaslighting to tell a crowd each hour that conditions are improving when clearly it peaked in the am.
Would Sasha Go?
off to the re-runs…re-plays…pour me a drink~